Friday, November 29, 2013

Hooray! She's worked hard the past few years and this year, 2013, her hard work with her coach has paid off. Congratulations to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk for a fine year. Check it out, Alexandra posted about it recently at one of her blogs, Chess Queen (TM):

Paul Bunyard films the poetry-in-motion spectacle of nature, puts it to music

November 27, 2013 by David Strege

A flock of 10,000 starlings put on quite an impressive show near Gretna, Scotland, with a photographer capturing the imagination with still photos of a gorilla, two dolphins, and a giant bird painted in the sky by starling murmuration, featured in the U.K. MailOnline.

Photographer Paul Bunyard of England went a step further by filming the spectacle of nature and putting it to music. Use your imagination and you might see a whale, a racecar, and any number of other images. The amazing display is pure poetry in motion. Enjoy:

MailOnline reported that the weight of the starlings resting on electricity wires caused minor power outages in a rural village near Gretna, which has a population of around 2,000. But the starlings were a welcomed sight when in flight.

“People can see in them what they like,” photographer Owen Humphreys told MailOnline.
So why do the starlings make these creative gyrations?

“There are several theories as to why starlings gather in this way,” Chris Collett of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told MailOnline. “Some say it’s for fun, or for communication, but the most likely reason is for survival, the theory being that the sheer number of birds will confuse a bird of prey.”

Sunday, November 24, 2013

She was a priestess named Meretites, and he was a singer named Kahai, who performed at the pharaoh's palace. They lived about 4,400 years ago in an age when pyramids were being built in Egypt, and their love is reflected in a highly unusual scene in their tomb — an image that has now been published in all its surviving color.
The tomb at Saqqara — which held this couple, their children and possibly their grandchildren — has now been studied and described by researchers at Macquarie University's Australian Center for Egyptology. Among the scenes depicted is a relief painting showing the couple gazing into each other's eyes, with Meretites placing her right hand over Kahai's right shoulder.

Such a display of affection was extraordinary for Egypt during the Pyramid Age. Only a few examples of a face-to-face embrace survive from the Old Kingdom (2649 B.C. to 2150 B.C.), the time period when the couple lived and pyramid building thrived, said Miral Lashien, a researcher at Macquarie University. "I think that this indicates very special closeness," Lashien told LiveScience in an email.

This scene, along with other works of art recorded in the tomb, suggest that women in Pyramid Age Egypt enjoyed a greater level of equality than some scholars believe. "The tomb of Kahai is an example of the importance of women," wrote Lashien in the email. "The frequency of their representations and the equal size to their husbands or brothers suggest equal status." [We already knew that.]

Photo by Ms. Effy Alexakis, (c) Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research
Center. Inside a tomb dating back to the age of the Pyramids in Egypt was this image,
an embrace between a priestess and her husband, a singer in the pharaoh's palace. The
image has been recorded by researchers in full color.

In the scene, Kahai is wearing a wig, a collar over his shoulders, kilt, bracelets and leopard's skin. He also is holding a staff and scepter, which serve as symbols of authority and responsibility probably related to his rise to the position of singing director, Lashien said. Meretites' wardrobe includes a long wig, choker and broad collar, bracelets and a long, tight dress with shoulder straps that appear to leave a breast exposed. (The display of bare breasts was not unusual among ancient Egyptian women.) [Don't you love how long Meretites' arm is -- look where her fingers are resting on Kahai's shoulder and compare the length of her arm versus his, LOL!]
This kind of embrace was not limited to romantic love; one of the few other similar embraces known from Pyramid Age Egypt shows two men who were likely twin brothers, Lashien noted.

Pyramid Age ColorThe tomb itself was discovered in 1966 and published in a book in 1971 mainly in black-and-white images. Scientists returned to the tomb in January and February of 2010 to study and document its artwork in full color. "This tomb is one of the most colourful examples of Old Kingdom art and certainly deserves a full-color publication," Lashien writes in her recently published book, "The Chapel of Kahai and his Family" (The Australian Center for Egyptology: Reports 33, 2013).
When the tomb was discovered in 1966, mummified remains were found in it, but it is not certain if they belonged to the family members. Egyptians in later periods often reused the tombs of those who had lived before them.

Archaeological and artistic evidence indicates the tomb was built during or shortly after the rule of King Niuserre (2420 B.C. - 2389 B.C.), who constructed his own pyramid just to the southeast of the Giza pyramids at a site now referred to as Abusir.

A family of singersKahai and his sons bear titles that indicate they worked as singers, with Kahai becoming the "overseer of singers of the two houses." That title meant "the family was employed in the palace," Lashien said in the email. "Probably, as a result, their tomb is particularly beautiful, being perhaps decorated by the royal artists," she said.

Indeed, the tomb art includes a colorful scene showing two people singing and musicians playing harps and flutes. Whether the musicians shown are family members or other individuals is unknown.
Despite his lofty title, Kahai would probably have kept on singing in addition to performing administrative duties, Lashien said. Looking at representations of musicians from the time period in which they lived, she said, "We have no evidence of large music/singing groups which required a full-time director. The representations show small groups of two to five men and/or women playing string and wind instruments, with one or two singers."

While the tomb itself doesn't reveal the specific songs Kahai sang for the pharaoh's family, the subject matter would, at least in some cases, have been cheerful. From other inscriptions, researchers know, for example, that the songs speak of the "pleasures of life, not different from today," Lashien said in the email, noting that one song encourages people to "eat, drink and be merry."

This is a snip of one of the images on the right side of the photo
of Kahai's and Meretites' tomb. They are both sitting before
their respective game boards, oh sorry, they are "offering tables"
according to the archaeologists and the playing pieces are not
playing pieces at all but loafs of bread. Yeah, right.

A father burying his adult sonThough Kahai was apparently successful at his job, his life was not devoid of tragedy. When the team studied the tomb's inscriptions they discovered that Kahai had to bury one of his adult sons, named Nefer. The tomb decorations include depictions of the young children whom Nefer left behind, and an inscription suggests that Nefer's wife was pregnant at the time of his death.

But even when family members died, their survivors could take comfort in the belief that the tomb provided them with a way to keep in some form of contact. The tomb includes five "false doors" with images of the deceased that acted as a conduit of sorts between the world of the living and that of the dead.

"Food was placed in front of the false door, and the Ka (life force) of the deceased was able to come out through the false door to receive the offerings and to enjoy the day," Lashien said.

The 2013 Brno (Czech Republic) Open took place November 16 - 23, 2013. Here are the final standings - a chess femme took clear first place. I saw this reported at The Week in Chess through the early rounds, tournament results at Chess-Results dot com.

Holy Hathor! GM Nona Gaprindashvili played in a simul during this event on November 23 - say what! Yep, she played! I sure wish this event had received more publicity, for she is one of the great female chessplayers of our time. I don't know the details or her results, alas. Link.

Oh oh - guess what, in the minute or so it took me to write this here, the link and my comment on Facebook have magically disappeared. So, did she play this simul, or did she not? Guess not?

This Championship took place November 11 - 24, 2013, in Opatija, Croatia. World Women's Senior Chess Champion is WFM Yelena Ankudinova, who looks young enough to be my daughter. EEK! Just how "old" does one have to be to qualify for the female world chess championship, heh?

WFM Yelena Ankudinova.
Senior? Yeah, right! She just needs
to diet and exercise.

Here is the complete final cross-table for the women's event, and GM Nona Gaprindashvili finished in 2nd place overall:

There were two players from the USA - Hannelore J. Catania, who does not have a FIDE rating. She finished in 20th place overall with 4.0. Finishing in 22nd place was Marilyn Pelias, also no FIDE rating, with 3.0. I commend the fighting spirit of both of these chess femmes, hooray!

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Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIXApril 12, 2014Milwaukee, WIPrizes for female players in Open and Reserve sections and paid entry to next HCCC for top female finisher in each section. This is Goddesschess' 12th HCCC!

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Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIIIOctober 12, 2013Milwaukee, WIRecord prize money awarded to chess femmes - $800!In honor of National Chess Day and the one year anniversary of the passing of our webmaster, researcher and writer, Don McLean, additional prizes of $150 were awarded to the top two male finishers in each Section.Milwaukee Summer Challenge IIJune 15 - 16, 2013Milwaukee, WIPrizes for the chess femmes and funding a best game prize

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...